A moon rock decorates Biden's Oval Office (earthsky.org)

[eppur_se_muova]

Posted by Kelly Whitt in Human World | Space | January 23, 2021

A lunar sample collected during Apollo 17, the final mission to the moon, is now on display in President Biden’s Oval Office.



Like any other employee starting a job at a new office, a new U.S. president can decorate the Oval Office with photos, artwork and other decorative items of his choice. The 46th president, Joe Biden, has chosen to incorporate a moon rock into his environs. The moon rock, collected in 1972 during Apollo 17, the last lunar mission, is meant as a symbol of earlier generations’ ambitions and accomplishments. It also represents support for America’s current Moon to Mars exploration approach.

The Biden administration requested the moon rock, which was provided by the Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

The prism-shaped case in which the moon rock resides is labeled Sample 76015,143 and inscribed with the following:

Apollo 17 astronaut Ronald Evans and moonwalkers Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan, the last humans to set foot on the moon, chipped this sample from a large boulder at the base of the North Massif in the Taurus-Littrow Valley, 3 km (almost 2 miles) from the Lunar Module. This 332 gram piece of the moon (less than a pound), which was collected in 1972, is a 3.9-billion-year-old sample formed during the last large impact event on the nearside of the moon, the Imbrium Impact Basin, which is 1,145 km or 711.5 miles in diameter. You can see this impact basin for yourself during the next full moon. Look for Mare Imbrium as a very large dark circular shape in the upper left portion of the moon: this giant lava plain covers the floor of one of the largest craters in the entire solar system.

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more: https://earthsky.org/space/moon-rock-in-president-bidens-oval-office



One of the astronauts who collected this sample, Harrison Schmitt, became a US Senator (R, NM) and still lives in NM. Perhaps Biden should have him by for a visit !

[PirateRo]

1. This delights me no end

Worry about the future.

You will spend the rest of your life there.

[Phoenix61]

2. What a great hat tip to science!

Thanks for posting.

[Alacritous Crier]

3. That's a beauty! -- nt

[soothsayer]

4. Neat! Someone swiped one on display at the usps headquarters philatelic center

...during a big reorganization. I wonder if it was ever recovered.

[William Seger]

5. There's a small piece on display that you can touch at the National Air & Space Museum

... on The Mall, the world's most awesome museum!